Earlier today, I wrote about how President Trump has said he wasn’t changing his gun policy proposals following the events in Odessa, TX over the weekend. At the time I wrote that we didn’t know quite what form that legislative package would take.

Well, we still don’t.

However, we do know one bit of what will be contained in the proposal and that’s an expedited death penalty for anyone convicted of a mass killing.

The Trump administration is preparing a package of legislative measures responding to a spate of recent mass shootings, aides said Monday, even as White House and congressional staffs remain far apart on the best path forward.

The package will include legislation that would expedite the death penalty for people found guilty of mass killings, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff told reporters.

But it’s unlikely to include new provisions expanding background checks on gun sales after President Donald Trump backed off support for such steps following outcry from the National Rifle Association and warnings about the political consequences.

…

For now, the administration is focusing on the death penalty provision, which Attorney General William Barr previewed during a speech in August.

Legislation that allows for the “imposition of any death sentence without undue delay” in cases of mass murders, as well as slayings of police officers, will be proposed after Labor Day when lawmakers return from recess, Barr told a national law enforcement gathering in New Orleans.

“Punishment must be swift and certain,” he said.

I have mixed feelings about this, to be fair.

It’s not that I don’t think the death penalty is appropriate for people like this. No, in a case like this, I have little issue with execution for such people in and of itself.

However, a lot of times, these killers don’t intend to live. They carry out these attacks with the intention of being killed. I’m not entirely sure the death penalty will really represent the deterrent effect the White House is hoping for. At best, it’ll just be a case of putting down rabid dogs for the betterment of society, which I’m fine with. I don’t want these people to breathe free air again and if they’re not breathing any air, that’s even better.

The problem is, though, I don’t expect there to actually be a change in the frequency or severity of mass shootings. After all, if the monsters who carry out these attacks, if they don’t intend to live, aren’t really going to be dissuaded.

Yet, this is still a good thing in my mind. It signals that the White House isn’t just looking at gun control regulations as a potential way to curb mass shootings. They’re looking at other ways to dissuade these killers. They’re clearly recognizing that you can’t penalize the law-abiding and expect the guilty to be the only ones to feel it.

That’s just not how that works.

Plus, I could be wrong. This could be just the thing to stop the shootings. Hell, I want to be wrong on it.

Even if I’m not, though, I don’t really care. I don’t mind these sick bastards getting lethal injection even if it doesn’t curb a single shooting. The human race will be better without these dogs in it.